Log in

Injuries taking toll on Dallas Wings, who sit near bottom of WNBA standings

Posted 6/18/24

The Dallas Wings have been struggling this year, with injuries taking a major toll. The team has dropped eight straight games and plays six of its next seven on the road. Dallas has played all season …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

Injuries taking toll on Dallas Wings, who sit near bottom of WNBA standings

Posted

The Dallas Wings have been struggling this year, with injuries taking a major toll.

The team has dropped eight straight games and plays six of its next seven on the road. Dallas has played all season without star forward Satou Sabally (shoulder) and most of it without Natasha Howard (foot). Now the Wings are missing leading scorer Arike Ogunbowale, who is day to day with a sore Achilles tendon.

Ogunbowale is putting up the best numbers of her career, averaging 24.9 points, 5.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.9 steals. It hasn't been enough for the Wings (3-10), who are one game ahead of last-place Washington in the standings.

The star guard also made news last week when she appeared on a podcast and explained that she took herself out of consideration a few months earlier for the U.S. Olympic team because she could see how politics was factoring into the selection process.

“I pretty much had an idea that I wouldn’t be on it,” Ogunbowale said. “I just felt the vibes. When it comes to that stuff, it really doesn’t have much to do with your game.”

USA Basketball confirmed to The Associated Press that Ogunbowale had withdrawn from the pool.

If she doesn't get healthy soon, the Wings' season may continue to spiral downward.

AP WNBA poll

New York was a unanimous No. 1 choice in this week's AP WNBA power poll, followed, respectively, by Connecticut, Minnesota, Seattle and Phoenix. Two-time defending champion Las Vegas (6-6), which has already lost as many games as all of last season, was sixth. Atlanta was seventh, followed by Indiana, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Dallas.

Record ratings

The rematch between Indiana's Caitlin Clark and Chicago's Angel Reese drew record viewership with an average of 2.25 million people watching on CBS — the most on any network in 23 years. It was more than triple the viewership of last year's comparable game window, which featured Phoenix and New York. The Fever's 91-83 victory over the Sky, which featured Reese being assessed a flagrant-1 foul when her arm hit Clark in the head, peaked at nearly 3 million viewers.

Caitlin corner

Clark had a solid game in Indiana's win over Chicago, finishing with 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. That came after a rough contest against Atlanta in which the No. 1 pick had seven points, six assists and seven turnovers. Clark has a busy week with games against Washington and Atlanta before visiting Reese and the Sky on Sunday.

Rookie watch

Although Chicago has lost six of its past seven, Reese has been playing well. She's had a double-double in six consecutive games. Reese is averaging 12.1 points and 10.2 rebounds. Her teammate and fellow rookie Kamilla Cardoso also had a double-double in the loss to Indiana. It's the first time two rookies have had double-doubles in the same game since 2008, according to ESPN.

Player of the week

Aliyah Boston of Indiana earned AP Player of the Week honors. The forward averaged 23 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks to help the Fever win both of their games. Ariel Atkins of Washington, Napheesa Collier of Minnesota, Kahleah Copper of Phoenix and Jonquel Jones of New York also received votes.

Game of the week

Indiana at Chicago, Sunday. There's a budding rivalry between these teams, both of which have a lot of young talent.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball